As a way of keeping physically and mentally fit and staying connected our PE Department is organising a fun activity to see how far we can collectively travel around the globe in 40 days.

Thanks to everyone who has run, walked or cycled, or used their paddle board or longboard to collectively travel around the world since our challenge was set on 12 January 2021.

Mr Orkney said this morning, "Day 10 of 40 - a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. Together we have recorded 4,246 miles and have reached the capital city of India, New Delhi."

New Delhi is the second most populated city in the world and is home to 29.6 million people. The city experiences frequent earthquakes and In 2013 suffered from a total of 12, with four of magnitudes higher than 2.5 on the richter scale.

Every Step Counts

Please log your distance travelled on our Google form - every step counts - and don't forget that if a family of four go for a two mile walk then this should be recorded as eight miles - thank you!

Finally, a reminder to follow all government national lockdown guidelines for exercise when you are taking part in our challenge.

Link to Around the World in 40 Days Form

Supporting Your Child's Mental Health

Mr Manley has shared with me this link from the Young Minds charity.

At this link the charity provides six questions with answers for parents to find out how you can support your child's mental health during this pandemic.

Link to the Young Minds website

Also on the Young Minds website there are tips, advice and direction about where to get support for your child's mental health.

Click here for information and advice on When Emotions Explode

Emotional Logic - Free Parent Introduction Session

Emotional Logic aims to help students and adults to build inner strengths to adapt to changes and challenges in life, to help to develop new ways for families to communicate and talk about difficult emotional issues, and find new ways to deal with others when they feel angry, anxious or stuck.

The initial six weekly lessons to develop emotional intelligence for personal development have been taught in Year 7 for several years now, as part of the wider tutorial programme, and many parents have found it useful to understand and to be able to use the techniques themselves outside school.

The Emotional Logic Centre is offering a free parent introduction session on Thursday 28 January from 7.30pm - 8.30pm.

Please use this link if you would like to attend; the site also gives more details about the Emotional Logic personal development tool.

Link to register for the free parent introduction session

Student News

In the Head’s Blog each week we are sharing something of what students are doing at home during this period of national lockdown.

James Hills 6AJD has set himself the challenge of reading daily and has a book recommendation for us.

James said, “I recommend, although now out of season, the book The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus. It is a great Christmas gift for anyone who is into mathematics”.

If you have a book recommendation for me to include in future weeks, please complete this form.

Link to Book Recommendation Form

Please also browse our 16 x 16 reading list for inspiration.

Link to 16 x 16 Reading List

Excellent Work - Food Technology

Ms Hunns has sent me two excellent examples of dishes that students produced last week.

William Courtnell 7C, made an excellent rainbow salad, replacing the starchy carbohydrate to meet dietary requirements, his presentation is brilliant with a garnish of spring onion.

Otto Malm 8S, made an excellent batch of bread rolls which are well risen and golden brown. The plait roll in particular has been executed with accuracy and precision.

Excellent Work - Business Studies

Mr Alsop has shared an example of excellent work from Alan Kraszewski 10C who completed this cash flow forecast during Monday's lesson.

Mr Alsop said, I gave the class the instructions and a very basic spreadsheet to keep track of cash transactions for a music festival. Alan added formulae to his spreadsheet to make it functional, adjusted the formatting to make it easily readable, completed the task accurately, and then undertook the extension task analysing issues with the businesses' cash flow. He managed to do all of this in around 20 minutes, despite having never seen a cash flow forecast before. What I really like about it is that he independently rose to the challenge, and he has used his knowledge from different years and topics in order to apply it to this new concept. He's clearly worked really hard”.

Link to the set task

Link to Alan's example in pdf format

PSHEE Activities

As we enter the third week of this lockdown, even the most resilient of us are feeling different manifestations of stress, and this week it is the turn of Year 7 - 9 students to have a lesson on stress survival.

The lesson concentrates on knowing how physical symptoms may show in different people and also suggests a few ways to move out of a stress situation. For instance did you know that practising gratitude, even for little things, four to five times a week is documented to increase feelings of wellbeing?

Year 10 students have a more practical lesson working on developing a CV. They will look at good and bad examples and then write at least the personal statement section of their own, or review and improve if they have already started.

A CV needs to be a fluid, flexible and constantly evolving document which reflects skills and achievements relevant to whatever position is being applied for, so it is important to get into the habit of updating and improving on a regular basis.

Year 11 students have a new revision app to try, recommended by students at DHSB https://getadapt.co.uk and then their main lesson is about road safety especially looking at beginner drivers.

There are several activities to choose from, many of which come from RoSPA (Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents) and the charity Brake. On a sobering note, did you know that over 50% of the 15 year olds seriously injured, or worse, in car accidents were being driven by drivers under the age of 21?

Several more lighthearted activities too, such as games based on stopping distances, but all connected to the important theme of road safety.

Ms Moreton

eSafety Advice

This week I wanted to remind you of the inbuilt features of Google Chrome (web browser) - that are beneficial to you and your family at home writes Ms Buckler. Chromebooks are our choice of learning tool and there are many fantastic reasons that these devices are perfect for learning, but the whole school google experience is available by signing into Google Chrome on any device and this will enable you to take advantage of the following inbuilt features (source): Bookmarks

Chrome allows you to bookmark a web page or website and add it to a list so you do not have to type the web address in time after time. This can be useful for children to avoid mistyping a web address and ending up on a different site to the one they were trying to get to. To bookmark a site, first visit the site in Chrome. Click on the star icon to create a bookmark. Bookmarks can be organised into folders for different types of sites (e.g. ‘Shopping’ or ‘Games’) or saved to the Bookmarks Toolbar; a bar shown across the top of the browser window.

Safe Browsing

Chrome will automatically display a warning message if you try to visit a site that is suspected to contain malware or phishing. This feature will alert you to sites that may be dangerous to your device, but not to sites that may contain inappropriate or illegal content.

Remind your child that they should never share personal information on sites/services with people they do not know, and this includes usernames and passwords. If a site requests their personal information and they are not sure if it is okay to enter it, encourage them to check with an adult first. History

Chrome keeps a log of web pages visited, showing the time and date that the page was viewed. To access the History, click on the Menu button then 'History' (or alternatively press Ctrl + H). Individual entries or the whole History can be cleared by using the onscreen options.

Incognito Mode can also be used to browse without creating a log of sites visited or files downloaded. This mode is shown by the icon in the top left corner of the screen. These methods can be used to erase/hide the record of activities online in the browser. It is important to remind children that, although they can erase their browsing history, these methods do not make a user anonymous on sites and services they log into, and that any content uploaded (such as photos, videos and messages) is treated in exactly the same way as it is in non-private browsing. Extensions

Extensions are downloadable tools that add extra features to Chrome. Always read carefully which permissions an extension may ask for before installing it, as some may seek access to data and details entered on sites and services in that browser. Encourage your children to ask you for permission before installing extensions and if you are not happy with the permissions it requests, then it is best not to install it. Extensions are available on the Chrome Web Store. Pop Ups and Adverts

By default Chrome will block pop up windows; new windows (often containing adverts) that may appear when accessing some websites. There are also freely available extensions (downloadable tools that add extra features to Chrome) that can block adverts displayed on web pages. Some extensions also provide filtering and parental controls. Becoming familiar with these tools is important to controlling the amount of adverts seen in the browser, but talking to your children about the content they view online is equally important. Encouraging children to be critical of content and not to view everything as trustworthy can help them distinguish between fact, opinion and advertising. Remind them that if they ever see anything online that worries them or makes them uncomfortable then they should always tell an adult.

Google Workspace Help

There is a range of video tutorials available to help you at home with all of your google workspace tools: https://www.globalgeg.org/google-jr-training-series

Ms Buckler